VOODOO DOLLS (1991) *

A girl suffering from the loss of her father goes to an all-girls boarding school and enrolls in the drama club.  Her teacher selects a weird play from an anonymous author that focuses heavily on voodoo.  As the play edges closer towards opening night, people at the school begin dying off in mysterious ways.

Voodoo Dolls had a solid premise, but other than a cool black and white flashback in the beginning, it takes way too long to unfurl its obvious and predictable premise.  You’ve got to wait a while before anything remotely horrific happens, and when it does, it’s rather tame.  The sluggish pacing, especially early on doesn’t help matters as the film is one long, dull slog.

There is at least one memorable subplot involving the main bitchy trollop’s relationship with her lesbian roommate.  When she rebuffs her roommate’s clumsy pass, the devastated girl runs off and commits suicide.  I guess it was progressive at the time to have this sort of undercurrent in the film, but unfortunately, not a whole lot is done with it.

If you’re wondering why the movie is called Voodoo Dolls, it’s because in one scene, the titular dolls attack a Peeping Tom janitor after he spies on some college girls showering a la Porky’s.  This scene is pitiful.  The dolls are basically pinned onto the actor while he flails around.  It makes Puppet Master look like Psycho by comparison.   After that, it’s back to more insufferable interminable boredom.